Originally published in the Washington Post on June 12, 2020
In the weeks before protests and riots spread across U.S. cities, people were imagining new possibilities for post-pandemic urban life. Streets were closed to give people more space for socially distanced activities outdoors. Office workers were told they could work from home indefinitely, erasing their commute. Car-lite streets, spacious bike lanes, pedestrian pavilions and permanent sidewalk cafes were all part of a vision for how we could radically reconfigure life in our cities to create a healthy, happier future.
Today, some of those same streets have been littered with shattered plate glass and burned garbage. We are confronting an uncomfortable reality we knew all along, had conveniently ignored for decades.
Building just, healthy and inclusive cities requires far more than protected bike lanes and alfresco dining. We cannot fulfill plans for safer, cleaner, more sustainable cities without addressing the racialized history of redlining and the modern segregation that allows inequality to thrive. We must understand our past and commit to fix it systemically. We can no longer perpetuate wrongs through inaction.